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When Alicia Vikander taught us to put our pen in the bottle

Swedish Hollywood star Alicia Vikander has once again been spreading some of her home country's peculiar traditions abroad. Introducing: this really weird Swedish drinking game.

When Alicia Vikander taught us to put our pen in the bottle
Swedish actress Alicia Vikander and US talkshow host Jimmy Fallon. Photo: Tonight Show/NBC/Screenshot

Sweden is a country of very many unique traditions and more Hollywood actors than there are frogs around a Midsummer maypole. Some of the best of the former are drinking games – and one of the most famous of the latter is Oscar winner Alicia Vikander.

Put the two together (drinking games and Hollywood actors we mean, not the frogs) and you get an oddly hilarious video from US 'The Tonight Show' that has gone viral overnight.

Now, this is not the first time Vikander appears on the talkshow to talk Swedishness. Last year she and US-married-to-a-Swede comedian Will Ferrell belted out a version of drinking song 'Helan Går'. She has also explained both crayfish parties and Midsummer on the show.

This time around, she showed host Jimmy Fallon how to play a game called 'pen in the bottle'. They skip what is arguably the best part, drinking the contents of the bottle, and move onto the final stages of the game which involves tying a pen around your waist.

The next step sees Vikander and Falling squatting in very awkward positions, trying to lower their pens into bottles on the floor, while giggling and making innuendo jokes. But don't listen to us, just watch the clip:

READ ALSO: Sweden's top-eight craziest drinking songs

Vikander is one of Hollywood's new favourite sweethearts, with roles in blockbusters such as Academy Award-winning transgender movie 'The Danish Girl' and more recently, the latest instalment of Matt Damon's action series about former CIA assassin Jason Bourne.

The 27-year-old from Gothenburg plays Heather Lee, one of the new lead characters in the film, which premiered last week. Earlier this year she became the first Swedish actress to win an Academy Award in four decades for her performance in 'The Danish Girl'.

OSCARS

Sweden picks best-seller adaptation for Oscars

The Swedish Film Institute has revealed that A Man Called Ove by director Hannes Holm will be its nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards.

Sweden picks best-seller adaptation for Oscars
Rolf Lassgård as the title character in A Man Called Ove. Photo: Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT

An adaptation of Swedish author Fredrik Backman's New York Times best-seller, the film stars Rolf Lassgård as a stereotypical Saab-driving, cranky curmudgeon who has his heart unexpectedly opened by a warm new neighbour.

“I have an underdog personality so I chose to lie very low. I was really happy when I found out,” director Holm said at a press conference after the nomination for his film was revealed.

In a press release accompanying the announcement, Sweden’s national film body called the movie “one of the biggest Swedish cinema successes ever”, citing over 1.7 million admissions to see it domestically.

Released in December 2015, by March 2016 A Man Called Ove had already reached third place on the list of most-watched films at Swedish cinemas since records began in 1963.

Despite its major domestic success, claiming an Oscar will be a tough task. A Swedish film has not won in the Best Foreign Language Film category since Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander took the Oscar back in 1983.

Swedish cinema icon Bergman was also behind the country’s only other previous wins in the category, with The Virgin Spring coming out on top in 1960, and Through a Glass Darkly winning in 1961.

A more positive omen can be found in Sweden's more recent success in other categories however. Last year Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Danish Girl – the first Swedish performer to win an Academy Award since Ingrid Bergman in 1974. 

The Academy Awards jury will announce the final five-film shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Film prize on January 24th, before the gala itself is held on February 26th.

READ ALSO: 30 Swedish movies you must see before you die